The Lower Limestones and associated volcanic rocks of a section of Fifeshire coast

Abstract

Introduction. The area described in this paper is on the south coast of East Fife. It is bounded on the east by the volcanic headland of Elie Ness, and on the west by the intrusive basalt sheet of Chapel Ness. There are a number of previous writings dealing with this section. The Edge Coals of Earlsferry have long been known and were formerly worked, although all traces of the pits have long since disappeared. In a paper to the Highland Society in 1837, Mr Landale described the Earlsferry Coals, and made reference to the ‶trap dyke″ or fault which dislocated the coals.1 A later description of this coalfield is incorporated in the Geological Survey Memoir on East Fife.2 In 1857 the Rev. W. Wood of Elie published a paper ‶On the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Elie.″3 Wood attempts to correlate the sedimentary rocks with those of the St Monans syncline, but, as he only records one of the limestones, his correlation is not complete. In 1867 the Rev. T. Brown described the Arctic Shell Clay of Elie, and published a list of fossils obtained therefrom. A description of the sequence of the glacial and post-glacial deposits is also incorporated in this paper.4 Further descriptions of these deposits is contained in a paper by R. Etheridge, jun.,5 and in the Geological Survey Memoir. The sedimentary rocks of the section are referred to by Sir Archibald Geikie in the Memoir. Regarding the Lower Limestones, the author of the Memoir states:—6 ‶There